Eddie Anderson on his Boss

Perhaps next to Jack Benny, Rochester was the most popular character on the Benny radio show. That’s what the applause seems to indicate, especially on broadcasts in front of military audiences during the war.

Eddie Anderson always seems to be at least half in character when doing newspaper interviews, but in this piece in the TV Time column of the Hollywood Citizen-News, he’s being himself.

He’s not quite accurate when he says he was on with Jack the week after the “porter” show, but it probably seemed that way after the passage of time. One thing he’s right about—he did get plenty of laughs.

This was published October 26, 1963.

He Talks About Benny
By EDDIE (ROCHESTER) ANDERSON
About all I can say after 25 years with Jack Benny is that it’s been a ball. No money, just a ball.
Of course, I’m kidding; I’m sure everyone in show business— and a large part of the public— knows by now that Jack Benny is one of the most generous men alive.
As a boss he keeps a natural and relaxed attitude on the set— there’s very little of that high pressure and tension that you're always hearing about in television. As a result, everyone breaks his neck to do a good job.
THE REAL JACK
The hardest worker is Jack himself. I’m sure he realizes that no one can be perfect, but that doesn’t seem to stop him from trying. He probably wouldn’t be starting his 31st year in broadcasting if he did.
Any resemblance between the character I play on “The Jack Benny Program” and the real me is purely accidental. According to the script, my boss is so cheap that he refuses to have my room wired for electricity — he gave me a room next to the streetlight on the corner and told me to leave the blinds open when I wanted to read.
Now the truth is that I have a fine home—and have had for years— and a lovely family. And of course this is due almost completely to my years of work on the Benny radio and television shows and in his movies.
I’ll be appearing with The Boss again in many shows this season, our 14th on the CBS Television Network.
Along about this time every year with the new season starting and all, I have good reason to be grateful that luck— or something—was with me that day in 1937 when I auditioned for a part on the old Jack Benny radio show.
BENNY’S PORTER
Happily for me, I won the audition and played the part of a porter on a train that was supposed to be taking Jack and his cast from New York to Hollywood. The writers gave me a lot of funny lines.
Well, the part of the porter—Rochester—got so many laughs from the studio audience and so many people who heard the show wrote in that the producers had me back the next week.
The following week went the same way—loads of phone calls and letters—and so The Boss decided to make me a regular character on the show.
It would be hard to imagine being associated with any nicer and more talented people over the years than Jack Benny, Dennis Day and Don Wilson— not to mention the great behind-the-scenes staff.
It’s been a million laughs and it seems I’ve made millions of friends through my association with Jack Benny.
And, contrary to the image “the boss” likes to project, the money hasn't been half-bad, either.